Ubuntu 21.10 Desktops Linux Gaming Wayland / X.Org gaming performance on Ubuntu 21.10 with GNOME Shell and KDE Plasma. Benchmarks by Michael Larabel for a future article. GNOME Shell: X.Org: Processor: AMD Ryzen 9 5900X 12-Core @ 3.70GHz (12 Cores / 24 Threads), Motherboard: ASUS ROG CROSSHAIR VIII HERO (3801 BIOS), Chipset: AMD Starship/Matisse, Memory: 16GB, Disk: 1000GB Western Digital WDS100T1X0E-00AFY0 + 2000GB, Graphics: Gigabyte AMD Radeon RX 6800/6800 XT / 6900 16GB (2575/1000MHz), Audio: AMD Navi 21 HDMI Audio, Monitor: ASUS VP28U, Network: Realtek RTL8125 2.5GbE + Intel I211 OS: Ubuntu 21.10, Kernel: 5.13.0-19-generic (x86_64), Desktop: GNOME Shell 40.5, Display Server: X Server 1.20.13, OpenGL: 4.6 Mesa 21.2.2 (LLVM 12.0.1), Vulkan: 1.2.182, Compiler: GCC 11.2.0, File-System: ext4, Screen Resolution: 3840x2160 GNOME Shell: Wayland: Processor: AMD Ryzen 9 5900X 12-Core @ 3.70GHz (12 Cores / 24 Threads), Motherboard: ASUS ROG CROSSHAIR VIII HERO (3801 BIOS), Chipset: AMD Starship/Matisse, Memory: 16GB, Disk: 1000GB Western Digital WDS100T1X0E-00AFY0 + 2000GB, Graphics: Gigabyte AMD Radeon RX 6800/6800 XT / 6900 16GB (2575/1000MHz), Audio: AMD Navi 21 HDMI Audio, Monitor: ASUS VP28U, Network: Realtek RTL8125 2.5GbE + Intel I211 OS: Ubuntu 21.10, Kernel: 5.13.0-19-generic (x86_64), Desktop: GNOME Shell 40.5, Display Server: X Server + Wayland, OpenGL: 4.6 Mesa 21.2.2 (LLVM 12.0.1), Vulkan: 1.2.182, Compiler: GCC 11.2.0, File-System: ext4, Screen Resolution: 3840x2160 KDE Plasma: X.Org: Processor: AMD Ryzen 9 5900X 12-Core @ 3.70GHz (12 Cores / 24 Threads), Motherboard: ASUS ROG CROSSHAIR VIII HERO (3801 BIOS), Chipset: AMD Starship/Matisse, Memory: 16GB, Disk: 1000GB Western Digital WDS100T1X0E-00AFY0 + 2000GB, Graphics: Gigabyte AMD Radeon RX 6800/6800 XT / 6900 16GB (2575/1000MHz), Audio: AMD Navi 21 HDMI Audio, Monitor: ASUS VP28U, Network: Realtek RTL8125 2.5GbE + Intel I211 OS: Ubuntu 21.10, Kernel: 5.13.0-19-generic (x86_64), Desktop: KDE Plasma 5.22.5, Display Server: X Server 1.20.13, OpenGL: 4.6 Mesa 21.2.2 (LLVM 12.0.1), Vulkan: 1.2.182, Compiler: GCC 11.2.0, File-System: ext4, Screen Resolution: 3840x2160 KDE Plasma: Wayland: Processor: AMD Ryzen 9 5900X 12-Core @ 3.70GHz (12 Cores / 24 Threads), Motherboard: ASUS ROG CROSSHAIR VIII HERO (3801 BIOS), Chipset: AMD Starship/Matisse, Memory: 16GB, Disk: 1000GB Western Digital WDS100T1X0E-00AFY0 + 2000GB, Graphics: Gigabyte AMD Radeon RX 6800/6800 XT / 6900 16GB (2575/1000MHz), Audio: AMD Navi 21 HDMI Audio, Monitor: ASUS VP28U, Network: Realtek RTL8125 2.5GbE + Intel I211 OS: Ubuntu 21.10, Kernel: 5.13.0-19-generic (x86_64), Desktop: KDE Plasma 5.22.5, Display Server: X Server 1.20.13 + Wayland, OpenGL: 4.6 Mesa 21.2.2 (LLVM 12.0.1), Vulkan: 1.2.182, Compiler: GCC 11.2.0, File-System: ext4, Screen Resolution: 3840x2160 GravityMark 1.2 Resolution: 1920 x 1080 - Renderer: Vulkan Frames Per Second > Higher Is Better GNOME Shell: X.Org ... 218.6 |================================================= GNOME Shell: Wayland . 215.2 |================================================ KDE Plasma: X.Org .... 218.9 |================================================= KDE Plasma: Wayland .. 217.9 |================================================= GravityMark 1.2 Resolution: 3840 x 2160 - Renderer: Vulkan Frames Per Second > Higher Is Better GNOME Shell: X.Org ... 143.0 |================================================= GNOME Shell: Wayland . 141.6 |================================================ KDE Plasma: X.Org .... 143.1 |================================================= KDE Plasma: Wayland .. 142.9 |================================================= Batman: Arkham Knight Resolution: 1920 x 1080 - Quality: High Frames Per Second > Higher Is Better GNOME Shell: X.Org ... 263.54 |=============================================== GNOME Shell: Wayland . 259.09 |============================================== KDE Plasma: X.Org .... 269.89 |================================================ KDE Plasma: Wayland .. 268.50 |================================================ Batman: Arkham Knight Resolution: 3840 x 2160 - Quality: High Frames Per Second > Higher Is Better GNOME Shell: X.Org ... 129.32 |=============================================== GNOME Shell: Wayland . 130.21 |================================================ KDE Plasma: X.Org .... 131.27 |================================================ KDE Plasma: Wayland .. 129.96 |================================================ DDraceNetwork 15.3.1 Resolution: 1920 x 1080 - Mode: Fullscreen - Renderer: OpenGL 3.3 - Zoom: Default - Demo: Multeasymap Frames Per Second > Higher Is Better GNOME Shell: X.Org ... 506.59 |================================================ GNOME Shell: Wayland . 509.72 |================================================ KDE Plasma: X.Org .... 506.12 |================================================ KDE Plasma: Wayland .. 507.29 |================================================ DDraceNetwork 15.3.1 Resolution: 3840 x 2160 - Mode: Fullscreen - Renderer: OpenGL 3.3 - Zoom: Default - Demo: Multeasymap Frames Per Second > Higher Is Better GNOME Shell: X.Org ... 498.05 |=============================================== GNOME Shell: Wayland . 500.22 |=============================================== KDE Plasma: X.Org .... 504.38 |================================================ KDE Plasma: Wayland .. 507.46 |================================================ Deus Ex: Mankind Divided Preset: 3840 x 2160 - Low Quality Frames Per Second > Higher Is Better GNOME Shell: X.Org ... 95.7 |================================================== GNOME Shell: Wayland . 95.0 |================================================= KDE Plasma: X.Org .... 96.5 |================================================== KDE Plasma: Wayland .. 95.5 |================================================= DiRT Rally 2.0 Resolution: 2560 x 1080 - Graphics Preset: Ultra Frames Per Second > Higher Is Better GNOME Shell: X.Org ... 188.79 |=============================================== GNOME Shell: Wayland . 189.98 |================================================ KDE Plasma: X.Org .... 190.99 |================================================ KDE Plasma: Wayland .. 190.55 |================================================ DiRT Rally 2.0 Resolution: 3840 x 1600 - Graphics Preset: Ultra Frames Per Second > Higher Is Better GNOME Shell: X.Org ... 123.20 |================================================ GNOME Shell: Wayland . 124.07 |================================================ KDE Plasma: X.Org .... 124.45 |================================================ KDE Plasma: Wayland .. 124.34 |================================================ ET: Legacy 2.78 Resolution: 1920 x 1080 Frames Per Second > Higher Is Better GNOME Shell: X.Org ... 647.4 |================================================= GNOME Shell: Wayland . 642.6 |================================================= KDE Plasma: X.Org .... 639.1 |================================================ KDE Plasma: Wayland .. 643.7 |================================================= F1 2020 Resolution: 1920 x 1080 - Graphics Preset: Ultra Frames Per Second > Higher Is Better GNOME Shell: X.Org ... 187 |================================================== GNOME Shell: Wayland . 189 |=================================================== KDE Plasma: X.Org .... 190 |=================================================== KDE Plasma: Wayland .. 187 |================================================== F1 2020 Resolution: 3840 x 2160 - Graphics Preset: Ultra Frames Per Second > Higher Is Better GNOME Shell: X.Org ... 160 |================================================== GNOME Shell: Wayland . 162 |=================================================== KDE Plasma: X.Org .... 162 |=================================================== KDE Plasma: Wayland .. 162 |=================================================== F1 2020 Resolution: 3840 x 2160 - Graphics Preset: Ultra - Total Frame Time Milliseconds < Lower Is Better GNOME Shell: X.Org ... MIN: 2.4 AVG: 6.2 MAX: 15.9 GNOME Shell: Wayland . MIN: 4.0 AVG: 6.2 MAX: 15.6 KDE Plasma: X.Org .... MIN: 3.8 AVG: 6.2 MAX: 18.0 KDE Plasma: Wayland .. MIN: 3.6 AVG: 6.2 MAX: 19.2 HITMAN 2 Resolution: 3840 x 2160 - Quality Level: Ultra Frames Per Second > Higher Is Better GNOME Shell: X.Org ... 89.66 |================================================= GNOME Shell: Wayland . 90.26 |================================================= KDE Plasma: X.Org .... 84.00 |============================================== KDE Plasma: Wayland .. 64.48 |=================================== HITMAN 2 Resolution: 3840 x 2160 - Quality Level: Ultra - Total Frame Time Milliseconds < Lower Is Better GNOME Shell: X.Org ... MIN: 4.6 AVG: 11.1 MAX: 53.9 GNOME Shell: Wayland . MIN: 4.6 AVG: 11.1 MAX: 48.5 KDE Plasma: X.Org .... MIN: 4.6 AVG: 11.1 MAX: 45.7 KDE Plasma: Wayland .. MIN: 5.4 AVG: 15.4 MAX: 45.8 Left 4 Dead 2 Resolution: 3840 x 2160 - Renderer: OpenGL Frames Per Second > Higher Is Better GNOME Shell: X.Org ... 352.63 |=============================================== GNOME Shell: Wayland . 356.86 |=============================================== KDE Plasma: X.Org .... 362.02 |================================================ KDE Plasma: Wayland .. 359.83 |================================================ Left 4 Dead 2 Resolution: 3840 x 2160 - Renderer: Vulkan Frames Per Second > Higher Is Better GNOME Shell: X.Org ... 376.76 |=============================================== GNOME Shell: Wayland . 377.51 |=============================================== KDE Plasma: X.Org .... 386.35 |================================================ KDE Plasma: Wayland .. 381.99 |=============================================== Portal 2 Resolution: 1920 x 1080 - Renderer: OpenGL Frames Per Second > Higher Is Better GNOME Shell: X.Org ... 536.48 |=============================================== GNOME Shell: Wayland . 538.92 |=============================================== KDE Plasma: X.Org .... 536.76 |=============================================== KDE Plasma: Wayland .. 548.08 |================================================ Portal 2 Resolution: 3840 x 2160 - Renderer: OpenGL Frames Per Second > Higher Is Better GNOME Shell: X.Org ... 532.17 |=============================================== GNOME Shell: Wayland . 536.72 |================================================ KDE Plasma: X.Org .... 538.47 |================================================ KDE Plasma: Wayland .. 540.43 |================================================ Shadow of the Tomb Raider Resolution: 1920 x 1080 - Graphics Preset: High - Anti Aliasing: Off Frames Per Second > Higher Is Better GNOME Shell: X.Org ... 229.5 |=============================================== GNOME Shell: Wayland . 233.0 |================================================ KDE Plasma: X.Org .... 238.5 |================================================= Shadow of the Tomb Raider Resolution: 3840 x 2160 - Graphics Preset: High - Anti Aliasing: Off Frames Per Second > Higher Is Better GNOME Shell: X.Org ... 93.3 |================================================= GNOME Shell: Wayland . 93.9 |================================================== KDE Plasma: X.Org .... 94.8 |================================================== Strange Brigade Resolution: 1920 x 1080 - Graphics Setting: Ultra Frames Per Second > Higher Is Better GNOME Shell: X.Org ... 239.7 |================================================ GNOME Shell: Wayland . 241.6 |================================================ KDE Plasma: X.Org .... 240.9 |================================================ KDE Plasma: Wayland .. 245.2 |================================================= Strange Brigade Resolution: 3840 x 2160 - Graphics Setting: Ultra Frames Per Second > Higher Is Better GNOME Shell: X.Org ... 151.6 |================================================ GNOME Shell: Wayland . 152.2 |================================================= KDE Plasma: X.Org .... 153.4 |================================================= KDE Plasma: Wayland .. 153.1 |================================================= Tesseract 2014-05-12 Resolution: 1920 x 1080 Frames Per Second > Higher Is Better GNOME Shell: X.Org ... 949.09 |=============================================== GNOME Shell: Wayland . 957.01 |=============================================== KDE Plasma: X.Org .... 955.26 |=============================================== KDE Plasma: Wayland .. 970.43 |================================================ Tesseract 2014-05-12 Resolution: 3840 x 2160 Frames Per Second > Higher Is Better GNOME Shell: X.Org ... 874.72 |================================================ GNOME Shell: Wayland . 870.25 |=============================================== KDE Plasma: X.Org .... 878.08 |================================================ KDE Plasma: Wayland .. 882.83 |================================================ Unigine Superposition 1.0 Resolution: 1920 x 1080 - Mode: Fullscreen - Quality: Ultra - Renderer: OpenGL Frames Per Second > Higher Is Better GNOME Shell: X.Org ... 70.8 |================================================== GNOME Shell: Wayland . 70.8 |================================================== KDE Plasma: X.Org .... 71.3 |================================================== KDE Plasma: Wayland .. 71.5 |================================================== Unvanquished 0.52.1 Resolution: 1920 x 1080 - Effects Quality: Ultra Frames Per Second > Higher Is Better GNOME Shell: X.Org ... 405.0 |================================================= GNOME Shell: Wayland . 400.5 |================================================ KDE Plasma: X.Org .... 409.0 |================================================= KDE Plasma: Wayland .. 408.9 |================================================= Unvanquished 0.52.1 Resolution: 3840 x 2160 - Effects Quality: Ultra Frames Per Second > Higher Is Better GNOME Shell: X.Org ... 400.3 |================================================= GNOME Shell: Wayland . 400.7 |================================================= KDE Plasma: X.Org .... 394.5 |================================================ KDE Plasma: Wayland .. 396.8 |================================================= Warsow 2.5 Beta Resolution: 1920 x 1080 Frames Per Second > Higher Is Better GNOME Shell: X.Org ... 957.7 |================================================= GNOME Shell: Wayland . 950.4 |================================================ KDE Plasma: X.Org .... 952.8 |================================================= KDE Plasma: Wayland .. 960.2 |================================================= Warsow 2.5 Beta Resolution: 3840 x 2160 Frames Per Second > Higher Is Better GNOME Shell: X.Org ... 924.6 |================================================ GNOME Shell: Wayland . 936.8 |================================================= KDE Plasma: X.Org .... 922.1 |================================================ KDE Plasma: Wayland .. 937.6 |================================================= Xonotic 0.8.2 Resolution: 3840 x 2160 - Effects Quality: Ultimate Frames Per Second > Higher Is Better GNOME Shell: X.Org ... 426.64 |============================================== GNOME Shell: Wayland . 431.88 |=============================================== KDE Plasma: X.Org .... 441.54 |================================================ KDE Plasma: Wayland .. 443.53 |================================================ yquake2 8.0 Renderer: Vulkan - Resolution: 1920 x 1080 Frames Per Second > Higher Is Better GNOME Shell: X.Org ... 991.1 |================================================= GNOME Shell: Wayland . 991.1 |================================================= KDE Plasma: X.Org .... 990.1 |================================================= KDE Plasma: Wayland .. 992.2 |================================================= yquake2 8.0 Renderer: Vulkan - Resolution: 3840 x 2160 Frames Per Second > Higher Is Better GNOME Shell: X.Org ... 411.5 |================================================ GNOME Shell: Wayland . 409.2 |================================================ KDE Plasma: X.Org .... 416.6 |================================================= KDE Plasma: Wayland .. 409.1 |================================================ yquake2 8.0 Renderer: OpenGL 3.x - Resolution: 1920 x 1080 Frames Per Second > Higher Is Better GNOME Shell: X.Org ... 991.7 |================================================= GNOME Shell: Wayland . 991.7 |================================================= KDE Plasma: X.Org .... 992.2 |================================================= KDE Plasma: Wayland .. 991.1 |================================================= yquake2 8.0 Renderer: OpenGL 3.x - Resolution: 3840 x 2160 Frames Per Second > Higher Is Better GNOME Shell: X.Org ... 986.5 |================================================= GNOME Shell: Wayland . 988.0 |================================================= KDE Plasma: X.Org .... 986.5 |================================================= KDE Plasma: Wayland .. 988.5 |=================================================